Sargon II, King of Assyria (721-705 BC)

Sargon II (Sharru-Kenu, 'legitimate King') was a son of
Tiglath-pileser III (745-727 BC) and appears to have seized the
throne from Shalmaneser V in a violent coup. Sargon's immediate
concern was dealing with resistance inside Assyria. This
instability at the centre of the empire led to a rebellion in Syria
led by Yau-bi'di, king of Hamath. Sargon defeated this coalition
and the flaying of Yau-bi'di was portrayed in detail on the walls
of Sargon's palace in the new city of Dur-Sharrukin (modern
Khorsabad) whose foundations were laid in 717 BC. However, in the
south Sargon's forces were beaten in 720 BC by an army supporting
the Babylonian king, Marduk-apla-iddina II (the biblical
Merodach-baladan).

Sargon scarcely stopped fighting throughout his reign. A
campaign in 714 BC weakened the powerful northern state of Urartu
and from 710 BC he retook Babylonia, defeating Marduk-apla-iddina.
This great triumph was followed by the celebrations of the
completion of the new city of Dur-Sharrukin ('Fortress of Sargon'),
north of Nineveh. But in 705 BC a military emergency in Anatolia
required the king's personal participation and Sargon was killed in
battle. He was succeeded on the throne by his son Sennecherib.